MIT Hosts Bitcoin Expo

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency at large has been under a lot of scrutiny from the media, government, and even technology giants.

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Bitcoin and cryptocurrency at large has been under a lot of scrutiny from the media, government, and even technology giants. Several groups at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are bringing in a panel of experts to combat these claims and prove why bitcoin will emerge as the future of currencies.

HackMIT, the MIT Bitcoin Club, and the College Cryptocurrency Network will be welcoming its expert panel on May 3 for MIT’s Premier Bitcoin Expo, which includes a seven-hour workshop and discussions covering all things cryptocurrency.

The event is being hosted not long after the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations issued a warning to the state’s consumers of the “high financial risks” of dealing in bitcoin, while Boston became one of the first cities in the US to install a bitcoin ATM.

So what does the MIT Bitcoin Expo have in store for visitors? The expo’s website provided details:

“First, we’ll cover the basics of what Bitcoin is and how it works.

Then, we’ll hear perspectives from leading academics and professionals, illuminating why Bitcoin and cyptocurrencies represent one of most exciting developments in decades across the fields of cryptography, distributed computing, graph theory, finance, and economics.

Finally, we’ll switch into workshop mode, where expert practitioners will introduce us to tools for interacting with the code that lies at the heart of Bitcoin.”

Speakers include Gavin Andresen, head scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation; Sean Neville, co-founder and CTO of Circle Internet Financial, a Boston-based company that helps build relationships between bitcoin users and businesses that accept it; developers from Armory Bitcoin Wallet, whose open-source wallet app focuses on security for users and businesses, along with other Bitcoin experts.

Dan Elitzer, president of the MIT Bitcoin Club believes the expo will not only provide info on what is bitcoin to newbies, but will “give them tools for interacting with the code and Bitcoin protocol itself.” Elitzer also considers MIT to be the ideal spot for the expo with its “incredibly strong academic backgrounds in topics like finance, technology, and economics. It’s kind of the perfect mix of disciplines here.”

Elitzer also hopes the expo will open up the discussion about how Bitcoin will evolve. ““We want to allow students to start playing with this new technology to see what they can create with it. We want to focus more on this as a technology and protocol, rather than as a currency or commodity that we think only about the short-term price fluctuations.”

The MIT Premier Bitcoin Expo will be held on May 3 from 11am – 6pm at the Stata Center. Registration is free.